If you’re new to sales, you may not know what metrics you should be tracking for your sales leads. You don’t want to make it too complicated, otherwise, you’ll not keep track. But if it’s too simple, you won’t have good data to make good decisions from.
Here is a simple, but effective framework to keep track of your sales leads and what they’re producing for you. Also, included are some benchmarks to help you gauge if you’re on track.
The first thing to track is how many dials are being made. It’s a measure of how many times you or your sales team is picking up the phone to make cold calls.
The benchmark depends on the industry you’re in and how many leads you have. Some companies have auto-dialers that can allow a cold caller to make over 300 dials a day. A typical range might be 80-150 dials a day if that person is just cold calling.
Some industries that require more personalized prospecting may be in the 25-50 cold call range. And if the sales person is also calling to follow up on sales leads and close deals, that may also bring cold call dialing down to the 50 range.
You also want to measure how many contacts you’re making with your leads. If no one is answering the phone or if they are overwhelmingly bad connections, you may have a bad list. Business lists are changing all the time and you should make sure you have updated contacts.
For every 150 dials, I’m looking to connect with 10-20 people. That does include gatekeepers because they are also human beings.
Out of 150 dials, I tend to look to pitch at least 5 times. The pitch isn’t to sell the product most of the time. Most companies don’t do one-call closing techniques anymore. I’m mostly pitching to schedule a sales call where I have more time to actually sell.
I want to get a hold of the right decision maker roughly 5 times in a given day that I sit down to do 150 dials.
I also keep track of not interested counts. Why would I keep track of such a demoralizing metric? Because I need to know if there’s a market for what I’m offering as well as if my list if a good target market for what I’m offering.
If I get a ‘not interested’ 4 out of 5 times, I might need to consider who I’m targeting. In some cases, I may need to reconsider if my offering is meeting a real market demand. I’m looking to get at least 2-3 calls booked from those 5 pitches.
I’m also keeping track of how many of my leads turn into opportunities. I won’t know it’s an opportunity until I have that call with them. Out of 5 sales calls, I’m looking for at least 1-3 opportunities.
Of course, I also want to keep track of my closing numbers. How many of those sales leads actually turn into customers? It’s an important data point to know to evaluate several things.
It’ll tell you how effective your sales process is. It’ll also give you a sense of the quality of your list. It’ll also tell you if you need to tweak your process, messaging, market strategy, etc. It’ll also tell you how much your leads are worth.
InfoFree.com Leads
If you’re starting a new business or a sales rep looking for leads, this is a great place to procure them. You can get unlimited leads for a small monthly fee.
Again, this is where keeping track of metrics is important. If even one lead you get from InfoFree.com converts into a customer, what is that lead worth to you? Does the total sales from those leads exceed the monthly subscription? If the answer is ‘yes’, well you know what the right business decision is then.
